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SERMON, 



DELIVERED MAY 14, 1841, 



ON THE OCCASION OF 



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'jSIUII STimHOKTAEa If ^ § 5? 



RECOMMENDED BY 



THE PRESIDENT. 



BY 



W. H. FURNESS. 



PRINTED, NOT PUBLISHED. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

PRINTED BY JOHN C. CLARK, 60 DOCK STREET. 

1841. 



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SERMON. 



1 Pet. v. 6. 
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, 

It has pleased God to call this nation, for the first time 
in its history, to suffer the loss of a chief magistrate by 
death. The circumstances of the event have rendered it 
very impressive ; and special notice of it has already been 
taken in all places of worship and by various pubhc cere- 
monies. It has, nevertheless, seemed proper to him who 
has succeeded to the chair of state, to recommend to his 
fellow-citizens, to unite in a simultaneous acknowledgment 
of the hand of God in the removal of his predecessor. 

We are now assembled, my brethren, in compliance with 
this recommendation. — And here let me first distinctly re- 
mind you that, although we have met at the suggestion of 
human authority, we have not come together to engage 
in a mere formality, to take part in an idle show, to 
make only a pretence of humiliation and repentance. To 
what purpose is the multitude of our funeral observances, 
either for the living or the dead, in the sight of God or 
man, if they do not speak from the soul, or to the soul 
' that is in us; do not awaken us to those spiritual interests 
of our being, of whose unspeakable importance all the 
changes of life, public and private, and the death of kings 
and rulers, and the whole spectacle of mortality so solemn- 
ly admonish us. Our meeting here and now, pays no ho- 
nour — it is ;iu insult to the memory of the dead — it is an 
abomination in the sight of Heaven, unless we take occasion 



'4 

to commune with our own consciences, to confront and 
confess the evil that is in us, and resolve with fervent and 
humble prayer to lead new lives, to cherish a deeper sense 
of our duty to God and to our fellow-man, and devote our- 
selves, with renewed vows, to the great work of self- 
regulation. Hear what God spoke through the mouth of 
his prophet to his ancient people when, while they were 
profuse in religious observances, they gave unbridled in- 
dulgence to the evil desires of their hearts, and forgot the 
sacred obligations of justice and mercy : — " The calling of 
assemblies I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the so- 
lemn meeting. When ye make many prayers, I will not 
hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make 
you clean ; put away the evil of your doings from before 
mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; learn to do well : seek judg- 
ment^ relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for 
the widow.'''' Let us take heed to ourselves, lest through 
levity and hardness of heart we now incur condemnation, 
and swell the account against us. And here, where we 
have invoked the awful presence and the searching spirit 
of the All-seeing, let us, with humble and seriously dis- 
posed minds, endeavour to learn from the event which has 
brought us together, to cease from evil and to do well, 
to increase our reverence for right, our sympathy with 
the oppressed, our pity for the poor and the forsaken. 

The lesson and warning to be derived from the sud- 
den death of the highest in our land, is simple and ob- 
vious. It is, in fact, no more than the death of every man 
teaches. The humblest depart, the infant dies, and under 
all circumstances, the termination of a mortal life tells us 
the same thing. It speaks to us of the vanity of those 
hopes which are built upon the earthly and the visible. 
The things which are seen are temporal. Change is the 
law of their nature, the condition of their existence. And 
when they change, as they do and must, when one, for 
instance, suddenly disappears, who was the centre and 



hope of a small private circle, or of a broad empire, the 
truth illustrated is one and the same. We are warned 
against the folly of placing our chief dependance upon 
those things which may disappoint us at any moment, 
and of the possession of which we cannot be certain for a 
single hour. This warning which Death addresses to us 
under all circumstances, has recently been uttered in our 
ears, in a manner peculiarly imposing. To all those who 
are seeking place and distinction, whose idol is personal 
ambition, the providence of God directly speaks. They 
have just seen one borne up on the swelling tide of popular 
favour, amidst the shouts of a great nation, to a station than 
which no throne on earth, though it have stood a thousand 
years, is more honourable. But one brief month passes 
away, and he who sate there, the observed and honoured 
of all, falls from his high estate, and now lies mouldering 
in the grave. To every aspirant for political eminence God 
now saith, 'Thou fool, this night thy soul may be required 
of thee, then where shall be the honours for which thou 
art ready to barter away the dear treasure of thine in- 
tegrity and peace.' Well may we pray that this dispensa- 
tion of Heaven may be sanctified to our public men — that 
they may be inspired by an ambition which looks beyond 
all temporal rewards, and seek to serve their country, not 
by a slavish submission to ignorant and factious preju- 
dices, not for the sake of their places, but by exemplifying 
the principles and spirit of true Freedom, by recognising 
the sacred rights of Humanity in every dweller in our 
land of every name and colour, and by labouring, in all 
wise and lawful methods, to carry out the principles of 
our social constitution to their full and perfect consum- 
mation. 

But it is not to the ambitious only that God hath now 
spoken. Only a few may be actuated by a thirst for dis- 
tinction. But are we not all attaching an inordinate value 
to some one or another combination of external circumstan- 

a2 



B 

ces, seeking to obtain or preserve a certain outward condi- 
tion, in which we may take our ease, and enjoy the means 
of self-indulgence 1 Are not our affections bound up in 
some one or another of those things, which all the observa- 
tion of life warns us are transitory and insufficient] In the 
gifts of fortune or the promotion of our children, are we 
not looking for our highest good, the chief end and inte- 
rest of our being 1 Is not all else indifferent to us that 
does not tend directly to the furtherance of these] Are 
we prepared to listen to the claims of any truth or duty, 
which appears to endanger our personal comfort and 
exact the sacrifice of our temporal peace] Alas! it can- 
not be denied that the old and fatal delusion still blinds 
and perverts our hearts. Like the multitudes that have 
gone before us, we build our habitation, the home of 
our happiness, not in the region of life, not in the im- 
mortal thoughts and affections of the soul, not amidst 
those invisible things of Truth and Rectitude, which alone 
are eternal, but in the sepulchres of time and sense, in 
what is seen and transitory, there to lay ourselves down, 
and sleep, dreaming all the while that we are alive and 
awake. Hearken all then to the warning voice. All hu- 
man greatness is a flitting shadow. All human success, 
wealth, pleasure, friends, all must vanish, leaving us, if to 
-them we have given our chief regard, bewildered and 
miserable, with only one thing real, the bitter conviction 
of precious opportunities irrevocably lost and noble powers 
wasted, and Infinite Goodness abused. 

Such is the lesson of recent events. And, my friends, 
notwithstanding all the imposing demonstrations of public 
sorrow which have been witnessed, the long processions, 
the badges of mourning on our dwellings and in our 
churches, notwithstanding this day of universal humilia- 
tion, the heart of this people remains unreached, and it is 
all a hollow show, if the ardour of our devotion to tempo- 
ral good suffers no abatement, if, under the disci])line of 



God's Providence, there do not appear among us an in- 
creased interest in those invisible things, which alone are 
eternal, in Truth and Right and Freedom and Justice and 
Mercy. In these, in these, not in abundant possessions, 
not in numerous honours, not in self-indulgence and show, 
does the dignity and true end and business of life lie. 
These are the only things worth living for, the only 
things, of which no outward reverses, not even death 
itself, can rob us. 

It is my heart's desire and prayer that upon the mem- 
bers of this congregation, upon you, my kindred and 
friends, the teaching of God's Providence may not be 
without its effect. And now that we have been invited 
here by the head of the nation to acknowledge a great 
national loss, to mingle our prayers with those of the 
whole nation; now when the condition, prospects and 
welfare of our country naturally present themselves to 
our thoughts, and mingle with our meditations, let us, 
in all sincerity and earnestness inquire how we stand 
affected to those great invisible interests, to Justice, Mer- 
cy, Humanity, in the love and practice of which, the true 
life and honour of the nation and of every individual are 
bound up. 

You love your country ; you do well. And if it were 
enough to compare this land with other lands, we might 
well be proud. From the old world, from that great na- 
tion from which we sprung, what tidings are continually 
brought to us, of large masses, goaded almost to despe- 
ration by the grim prospect of starvation ! The American 
traveller in other lands is sickened by the tide of squalid 
beggary which is rolling and rising around the palaces 
of Luxury and Power. A depth and extent of physical 
suffering are revealed there and forced upon the notice 
of the most careless observer, of which the generahty 
of men here have hardly any conception. From all that 
we read and hear, we cannot avoid the belief that with all 



8 

its disorders and fluctuations, with its curse of Slavery, this 
country is unrivalled for the abundance w^hich it offers 
for the physical comfort of the people, and for the tenden- 
cies and means of improvement which it shows. Still 
it is never wise nor safe, for nations or individuals, at 
any time, certainly not on such a day as this, and in 
this place, to rest satisfied with comparing oneself with 
others. We may be better off in many important respects, 
than other countries; and this may be saying very little. 
Still only the deepest humiliation may become us, for we 
should judge and try ourselves, not by others, but by quite 
another standard. 

This nation has, in the most solemn manner, assert- 
ed before all the world the sacred rights of humanity, 
and declared that no earthly thing is so precious. And 
what is more, we profess a religion whose second great 
commandment is that we should love our neighbour as 
ourself, and do unto others as we would they should 
do unto us. Here is the standard by which we are to 
try ourselves. Now let us ask ourselves — Are human 
rights dear to us 1 Do we honestly and with an ardent and 
generous affection, love Liberty and Justice and Mercy? 
If we do, then I say, we must be wounded to the quick 
and humbled to the dust, when we advert to the glaring 
fact, that there are millions of beings in our land who, 
however comfortable they may be in their physical condi- 
tion, are nevertheless, in the plain and simple sense of the 
word, slaves, formally denied the invaluable rights of men, 
claimed, bought and sold as beasts of burden. 

Misunderstand me not, my hearers, I am not now pro- 
posing that you should lift a finger or utter a word in be- 
half of the enslaved. The simple point is. Do we Zoue justice 
and mercy] Are our hearts sound and true? Do they throb 
with a devoted attachment and loyalty to the acknow- 
ledged rights of humanity ] If they do, then we must be 
conscious of a feeling of hearty commiseration for those 



9 

who are deprived of these rights. Then we must be in- 
terested to study and discover, if we may, some means for 
their rehef But no, in truth, we dishke the whole sub- 
ject. We cahnly confess that slavery is a great evil, but 
still we insist that they who sit under its darkness are 
very happy ; and thus the true state of our minds is dis- 
closed, and we show that we think that physical comfort 
is a greater good than Freedom, and the things which 
are seen and temporal are a compensation for the things 
unseen and eternal, the sacred and divine rights of the 
mind. We can bear very quietly that millions should re- 
main in a state of hopeless bondage, but we cannot endure 
that the huge injustice should be spoken of except in the 
tenderest terms. Does not this show, to our shame, what 
spirit we are of! The true lover of Justice and Mercy re- 
cognises these claims in the person of the humblest, and 
can endure any thing, any personal suffering or sacrifice, 
more easily than the sight or thought of injustice or 
cruelty. 

But you will say, why agitate this subject here 1 Here 
in this part of the country Tire no slaves. I know it, and 
thank God. Still the influence of slavery is here. It has 
quenched the generous glow of freedom at the North. It 
has weakened and blinded our sense of justice. It has so 
mournfully biassed the general mind, that every thing in 
favour of oppression is eagerly listened to, while they who 
have laboured to awaken the nation to this great and 
ruinous wrong are covered with reproaches, and exposed 
to all sorts of opposition, although they may be the wisest 
and best of the land. Say you, we at the North have no- 
thing to do with this subject ! And what is it, pray, that 
admits and guards the right of property in human flesh 1 
Is it not the guaranty of that civil constitution which we 
uphold] Has our commerce, the supply of our common 
wants, nothing to do with slave labour ] How many men 
are there this day assembled in our churches, who, if 



10 

they were led to take up their residence at the South, 
would hesitate to buy men, and women, and children, or 
take this human property in payment of a debt "] It is 
said over and over again that northern men, when they 
become possessed of slaves, are the most cruel masters. 
Do not these things show, that although there are no 
slaves here, the spirit and power and influence of slavery 
prevails? Verily, we at the north are guilty concern- 
ing our poor brother. It is in vain, my brethren, to 
disguise it — the spirit of Justice and Mercy is wanting 
here. We have no settled and controlling principles of 
humanity ; no loyal, unswerving devotion to the rights of 
man; and it does indeed become us to humble ourselves 
this day before God. Good impulses may abound, and 
the mercy that costs nothing may be common ; but an en- 
lightened and all-controlling sentiment of Right — a hun- 
ger and thirst after Righteousness — a readiness to sacri- 
fice one's darling pleasures, to incur trouble and loss and 
danger for the sake of serving the friendless — a sympathy 
that darts like lightning into the place of the injured, and 
makes their cause our own'— a courage that rebukes the 
mighty in behalf of the weak, and which the frowns and 
flatteries of the world cannot terrify nor bribe; where 
shall we look for these 1 Can we find them in our own 
hearts ? 

We must confess before God this day, that the spirit of 
true freedom is weak in our bosoms. Here is the great 
and prevailing sin of the respectable and honourable of 
this nation, of the guilt of which we all partake. North 
and South. We love our ease and pleasure and pro- 
perty and a good standing with the world first, and 
chiefly. All these things, which God's providence teaches 
us again and again are transitory, perishable, have our 
warmest regard. If any thing can be done for justice 
and mercy, for the enslaved and degraded, without hazard 
to our personal security and popularity, we are wilhng 



11 

feilough to do it. But if opposition is to be encountered, 
and angry passions are likely to be excited, we are ready 
to fold our arms and shut our eyes to the bondage and 
sufferings of millions in our land. We do not want to 
hear the story of their wrongs. We insist that it is greatly 
exaggerated, and hesitate not to denounce as fanatics and 
visionaries those who are disposed to beheve it. All these 
things show us how we fall short of the generous love of 
liberty, the brotherly affections of Christ, the principles of 
common humanity, and what a propriety and need there 
is for us to confess our unfaithfulness in the sight of 
Heaven this day. There is no political authority, no civil 
arm here which has a right to interfere and break the 
chains of the slave, as the British government has recently 
done. Every thing here depends upon the public senti- 
ment, the prevailing spirit of the land, that spirit, that 
moral power, to the authority of which every one of us 
may and does contribute, every man, who mingles with 
his fellow-citizens, and whose sentiments, opinions and 
words have an influence upon any other man, every mother 
whose will is as a law of God to the hearts of her children. 
We cannot remain silent and indifferenrand be guiltless. 

I have heard it distinctly asserted and reiterated by one 
who denounced the friends of abolition as fools and mad- 
men, that the agitation of the subject at the north was 
doing good, was meliorating the condition of the slaves. 
But I have needed no such testimony. I know it must be 
so. Are we not constantly pointed to the physical com- 
fort, to the kind treatment of the slaves 1 And does it not 
stand to reason that they who use this fact to lessen our 
abhorrence of slavery, will naturally strive to make it 
more and more evident that the enslaved are well used ] 

But, you ask, how can Slavery be abolished 1 What way 
of deliverance is there from this terrible evil } My friends, 
where there is a will there is a way. It is not a method 
or scheme of emancipation that is needed, but an honest 



12 

and fervent disposition to break every yoke. They who 
are pleading for the slave, propose no plan of abolition. If 
they did, they might well be accused of improper interfe- 
rence. They aim only to assert the principle of freedom 
and justice. They strive to make that principle to be ac- 
knowledged, not coldly, as a mere speculation, not merely 
in the abstract, but received and cherished as a living sen- 
timent, a feeling, a deep, burning feeling. They wish to 
break those invisible chains of custom and worldliness 
which bind down the moral will, and fetter the moral 
power of the land. Until this is done, nothing can be 
done. No way of deliverance will be visible, even though 
it should shine before our eyes and be thrown open directly 
at our feet. Where there is no will there is no way. But 
let a generous enthusiasm for freedom and right and mer- 
cy be awakened in our hearts, and a light shall break forth 
like the morning, and our darkness be as the noon-day. 
Then the choral anthems of the free shall break forth from 
every mountain and every valley, from the lowliest dwell- 
ing of the land, and the grievous blot of oppression shall 
no more deface our national glory, and the vine of liberty 
which the hand of God has here planted, and which the 
blood of our fathers has nourished, shall extend its branches 
to our remotest borders, and to its shelter " the chased and 
wounded birds" of other climes shall fly for repose and 
peace, and this country shall be the joy and hope of all 
lands, the excellency of the whole earth. 






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